Back in the day, PC games were the only option and players had to waste hard disk space and time. The arrival of snack-sized mobile games was a relief, but only temporarily. These days, no matter the device memory size, users want to access their favorite games even faster, and developers pursue ways to make it real.

Last November, Facebook launched an all-new HTML-5 cross-platform gaming platform, Instant Games, which allows to play games right in the Messenger chat or Facebook News Feed without downloading them. In April at F8, it was announced that over the first 3 months around 1.5 billion games were played on Instant Games, and 800 million users launch at least one game per month.

The release version had 17 titles, but new games have been added weekly and now you can choose out of 50-plus list, including Pac-Man, 8 Ball Pool, Space Invaders, Words with Friends etc.

At F8, Facebook team announced adding major features that will radically change Instant Games experiences, making them more socially rich. From now on, there will be such sharing & connecting features as turn-based mechanics (Zynga’s Words with Friends launched in May), leaderboards, tournaments, sharing best/worst play moments to thread and simultaneous watching as gameplay unfolds and chatting inside the group.

Games tab, a list that allows user to track all his games, and game bots sending notifications about new levels, rewards and reminding when it’s time to make next move, definitely make Instant Games more engaging and easier to use.

If you are a developer who’s planning a release on Instant Games, you might need takeaways from the success story of Blackstorm’s EverWing, one of the top played games on platform.

Your game must have:1) easy gameplay one can understand in 30 seconds;2) frictionless UI and UX;3) fun ways to play with or against friends (such as, synchronous co-op play in the Boss-Raid mode in EverWing).

The engagement score of EverWing speaks for itself: an average retained user spends 1 hours each day playing the game. Even though Instant Games don’t feature in-app purchases or ads yet, an impressive 1 billion user base of the Messenger app means it has huge potential for becoming one of the top gaming platforms.